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Care Inspectorate

Inspection & Improvement: Working Together Guide

This guide focuses on supporting improvement in social services through collaboration.

The Working Together guide was created in 2016-17 as a part of Iriss’ ongoing partnership with the Care Inspectorate. This guide is based on work with a group of Inspectors and registered care homes as well as an internal staff survey.

The guide is intended to support improvement work across all services by offering key definitions, sharing analysis from surveys, presenting innovative ideas and providing tools to support improvement.

Care...about physical activity

Care... about physical activity is a resource that offers support for everyone in a care home to get involved and become physically active in different ways and not just through formal exercise sessions. This will help national and local organisations to promote physical activity in care homes. It is designed to stimulate simple solutions and practical approaches to enable all residents to choose to be active every day.

The Care Inspectorate developed the resource in partnership with the British Heart Foundation National Centre for Physical Activity and Health at Loughborough University.

Make Every Moment Count

Make Every Moment Count is a resource designed to improve the quality of life of older people receiving care services. The guide highlights how making the most of every moment can make a real difference to a person's quality of life in simple but very meaningful ways. By providing key messages on how to better understand an individual’s needs, values and lifestyle, the guide can help people working in care services to deliver an enhanced experience for Scotland’s older people. You can also use a poster as a reminder of the key messages.

The Care Inspectorate developed the resource in partnership with The Scottish Government, NHS Scotland, Alzheimer Scotland, the care sector, Scottish Care, the College of Occupational Therapists and The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy Scotland.

Managing Falls and Fractures

Managing Falls and Fractures in Care Homes for Older People is a good practice self-assessment resource to help staff assess how well falls prevention and management and the prevention of fractures is being addressed in their service and how to make improvements. The resource was updated in 2016 and includes an introduction to falls and fractures in care homes, self-assessment form and a range of tools which can be downloaded and used in a care home to help improve or change practice.

A survey was undertaken in 2011 to evaluate the use and early impact of the resource pack. The findings from the survey were published in May 2012.

The National Managing Falls & Fractures in Care Homes for Older People Project is a scheme aiming to reduce the number of falls in participating care homes by 50% by the end of 2015. Sponsored by the Scottish Government, the scheme is being implemented in three partnership areas: West Dunbartonshire, North Highland and Dumfries and Galloway. A newsletter on the project called 'Up and About in Care Homes' highlights improvements being made through the project. Issues published to date can be accessed on the Knowledge Network's Falls and Bone Health Community website or from the following links:

Preventing infection in care

An educational resource developed by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) & the Care Inspectorate 'Preventing Infection in Care' is available, which contains information to help prevent and control the risk of infection within adult care settings. This resource purely relates to adult care settings.

There is a DVD and CD Rom, which contains the information that is needed.

Meet Sid

Meet Sid is an online resource designed to help youngsters in care understand their rights, the National Care Standards and the level of support they are entitled to. Developed by a group of young people living in care, with the help of Who Cares? Scotland, Sid the Alien represents the experience of going into care for the first time and the common feeling that "I may as well have been on another planet".

Recent developments on the site include a film project, the arrival of Older Sid and a computer game, Far From Home, which explores themes of trust, consequences, danger and unfamiliarity. The game was created by students at Abertay University after a group of young people in care got together to discuss ideas and concepts.

Making effective decisions

Decision making is something that we are required to carry out every day. Many decisions are easy to take and others are very hard. Decision making, like most things in life, can be improved by learning techniques and also by practice. The Care Inspectorate Decision Model and Summary Decision Model will help you not just to take decisions but to record your reasoning for a particular course of action. The model is a ‘tool to have in your toolbox’. Have a look at the two documents describing the model and how to use it, then if you feel comfortable start using it. If you want to find out more about how to use the model contact Ewan Stewart, Head of Registration, Complaints and Legal Services.

Promoting continence for people living with dementia and long term conditions

This resource highlights the fundamental and essential care and support required to give people the opportunity to remain continent and maximise their quality of life.

Its production involved people living with dementia and their families and carers as well as staff from across the health and social care sector.

The resource can be used by people living with dementia and their families as part of self-management as well as by staff working across health and social care. The project was led by the Care Inspectorate and delivered in partnership with Scottish Care, Scottish Government, NHS Continence Advisers, the Scottish Dementia Working Group, ACA and the National Dementia Carers Action Network (NDCAN).

You can watch a video on this resource here and also access a poster here